On Tuesday (12), the Public Prosecutor's Office in Inhambane province asked the court for a longer prison sentence for a member of the Mozambique Republic Police (PRM) accused of committing crimes of incitement to collective disobedience and an attempted coup d'état.

The defendant, according to DW, is a member of the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR), who is accused of sending messages via the Whatsapp social network mobilizing other members of the corps to rebel against salary delays and threatening to "remove the Commander-in-Chief (President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi) from Ponta Vermelha (the official residence of the head of state), as well as "paralyze the country".

"So that others, who use social networks, don't spread messages that promote coups d'état, we ask that the sentence of 30 years' imprisonment be increased," said Maurílio de Sousa, a magistrate from the Public Prosecutor's Office, during the defendant's trial at the Inhambane Judicial Court.

In addition to the maximum sentence, the Public Prosecutor's Office has asked for 500,000 meticais in compensation for the state, arguing that the authorities had to take precautions in the face of the threat posed by the demonstration.

During the trial, the defendant distanced himself from the authorship of the message, indicating that he had forwarded it to the general commander of the police, Bernardino Rafael, with the intention of alerting him.

"I only received the message and, as a member of the PRM who has sworn to defend national sovereignty, as soon as I saw it I forwarded it to the commanding general. I am not the author of the message," said the defendant.

The verdict in the PRM member's trial will be handed down on September 27.

The application of the new Single Wage Scale (TSU) has left several sectors of the Mozambican Public Administration with salary delays, with members of the Defense and Security Forces complaining that their salaries have been delayed for at least two months.

According to previous information from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the delays in paying the salaries of the Defense and Security Forces are due to registration problems in the new payment system, taking into account the migration to the single system that began in June, which was previously done through the ministries of the Interior and Defense.

On August 11, the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, demanded an urgent solution to the delays and discrepancies over the application of the Single Salary Table (TSU), warning that the timely payment of salaries "is sacred and that he will not tolerate excuses".

In the case of the Defense and Security Forces, and just a few days after the commander-general of the police, Bernardino Rafael, acknowledged the two months' salary arrears to members of the corps, Filipe Nyusi ordered that payment be resumed using the previous platforms, until the problems are overcome, as the commander himself called for.

On Tuesday morning (12), the Mozambican Police Association (Amopaip) complained about irregularities in the payment of salaries to police officers, asking for explanations from the competent authorities, a month after the head of state demanded an urgent solution.

"Salaries are still going out in a way that we can't understand. Some get paid and others don't. Those who do receive continue to have a discount that nobody can justify and nobody comes out to explain," said Nazário Muanambane, president of Amopaip, during a press conference in Maputo.